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Posts Tagged Seven Seas

Supernatural and Swimming – Seven Seas Licenses Four New Manga Series

Supernatural and Swimming - Seven Seas Licenses Four New Manga Series

Convention season may be upon us, but Twitter is more and more becoming the only publisher panel you need to be present for – and you certainly won’t hear me complaining about the convenience! Seven Seas took to the social media platform last week to announce four new manga licenses:

Clay Lord: Master of Golems – Jun Suzumoto
Dance in the Vampire Bund 2: Scarlet Order – Nozomu Tamaki
Evergreen – Yuyuko Takemiya & Akira Kasukabe
Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary – Shake O

Clay Lord is a fun looking fantasy adventure. It follows a young man named Clay, who with abilities to create, control and befriend magical golems, enters competitions and travels the globe to further his skills and connection with them. The first volume of Clay Lord is scheduled from Seven Seas in April 2015, and is currently available to pre-order via Amazon CAN | US.

Dance in the Vampire Bund 2: Scarlet Order is the sequel series to Dance in the Vampire Bund, which it seems safe to say is one of Seven Seas’ most popular titles including several spin-off series. Taking off after the events of the first, this sequel follows its lead Queen of vampires as she attends the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, only to find herself a target for terrorists and embroiled amidst a new threat against her kind.

The first volume of Dance in the Vampire Bund 2: Scarlet Order is scheduled for December 2014, with pre-orders now available via Amazon CAN | US.

Evergreen seems like a well-suited summer announcement, telling the tale of a manga club president and the ace of his school’s swim team who become friends during a swim test, and perhaps something more. Seven Seas describes it as a romantic comedy, with the first volume scheduled for May 2015.  Yuyuko Takemiya, the author of Evergreen, was also the author of another Seven Seas’ title, Toradora!.

Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary adds another to Seven Seas’ growing collection of monster girl stories. The story is about a one-eyed nurse who treats an assortment of unique students who come through her school office door. The first volume of Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary is scheduled for February 2015, and can be pre-ordered now at Amazon CAN | US.


Seven Seas Licenses Manga Adaptation of ‘No Game, No Life’

No Name, No Life

Seven Seas is playing no games with its license announcements this year, dropping another treat with a new manga title:

No Game, No Life – Yuu Kamiya & Mashiro Hiiragi

No Game, No Life is a manga adaptation of the light novel of the same name. The story is about a brother and a sister who have garnered an internet-wide reputation for being brilliant gamers, but are also chronic shut-ins. One day they’re suddenly transported to another world where everything from politics  to finances are determined by the outcome of games. The brother and sister who couldn’t contribute to their society at home may have found the chance to offer this new world their particular brand of expertise.

The timing of this license is well chosen as the anime adaptation of No Game, No Life is scheduled to air next week.

The wait for the manga is a bit longer than that, but for those who watch and enjoy the anime, the timing should work out nicely. The first volume of No Game, No Life is scheduled for October 2014.


Seven Seas Licenses First Yuri of 2014, Citrus

Citrus

Seven Seas is a licensing force that feels like it can’t be stopped! And I’m certainly not going to get in their way (though I am having a little difficulty keeping up!). At the end of January, they announced what we can only hope is their first yuri license of the year:

Citrus – Saburouta

The plot of Citrus sounds like one of those anime-stereotype sis-cest stories ,only with two girls. While I usually avoid those kinds of series, it looks like I’ll be making an exception for this one. It’s a yuri – I must!

Citrus follows a young woman who’s never been in love, yet finds herself both annoyed and enthralled by the student council president at her new school. However, it turns out said-president is her new step-sister and, to top it off, the two are now living together.

The first volume of Citrus is scheduled for December 2014 and will retail at $15.99/CAN, $13.99/US.


Daring Doujinshi As Seven Seas Announces Dance in Vampire Bund Anthologies

Daring Doujinshi As Seven Seas Announces Dance in Vampire Bund Anthologies

Seven Seas is joining Yen Press at bringing doujinshi to North America. While doujinshi is a word for self-published comics, the term is used primarily by English-speaking audiences for fan-works based on preexisting properties. Seven Seas simultaneously pleases fans of one of their most popular series with this week’s doujinshi license:

Dance in the Vampire Bund: Forgotten Tales – Various
Dance in the Vampire Bund: Secret Chronicles – Various

These  two collections of short stories are primarily contributed to by fans of Dance in the Vampire Bund. They’ve been compiled by Seven Seas from a variety of smaller publications previously sold in Japanese comic markets.

The series original creator, Nozomu Tamaki, also contributed new stories to these books as well. Secret Chronicles is especially notable for fans of the original series as Nozomu Tamaki oversaw all the short stories within it, giving them official capacity. They’re canon, folks!

Forgotten Tales is scheduled to be released in June 2014, while Secret Chronicles will follow behind in October.

Credit for the news goes to ICv2


Seven Seas Switches It Up With Body Swapping Manga Kokoro Connects

Kokoro Connects

One of the most entertaining manga I’ve read recently has been Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, published digitally by Crunchyroll. It begins with a young man discovering he has the ability to switch bodies with others thanks to a kiss. Naturally, plenty of body-switching hilarity ensues! But, though this post serves as a convenient chance to promote such a fun series, it’s actually about another story where there’s body-switching afoot in school:

Kokoro Connects – Sadanatsu Anda & CuteG

Seven Seas announced they’d acquired the license to Kokoro Connects on their Twitter account earlier this week. The series is scheduled to start in August 2014 with volume one, while it remains on-going in Japan with five currently compiled books so far.

“Five members of the school culture club – Taichi Yaegashi, Iori Nagase, Himeko Inaba, Yui Kiriyama, and Yoshifumi Aoki – encounter a bizarre phenomenon one day when Aoki and Yui switch personalities without warning. The same begins to happen to the other club members, throwing their daily lives into chaos. At first the five students find some amusement among the confusion, but this connection also exposes the painful scars hidden within their hearts… When their calm lives are shattered, the relationships between the five students also begin to change!” – Crunchyroll

Kokoro Connects has also been adapted into an anime, which was streamed by Crunchyroll in 2012.


Seven Seas Licenses Magical Girl Apocalypse

Magical Girl Apocalypse

Seven Seas‘ has announced its first new title of 2014, starting off the year with a creepy, creepy cover (with added blood for effect!):

Magical Girl Apocalypse – Satou Kentaro

As the image implies, Magical Girl Apocalypse is not another tale of brightly coloured frilled skirts and cute compacts. The story follows two students whose lives are thrown into chaos when a magical girl appears at their school and begins murdering their classmates.

Volume one is scheduled to come out in October 2014. The series is currently four volumes long in Japan.


Seven Seas Celebrates the New Year with Website Launch

Seven Seas Celebrates the New Year with Website Launch

Seven Seas went out with a strong finish in 2013. In the last couple of months, there was news every couple of weeks for new licenses.

Now the company is leaping into the new year with a fresh face for their website:

Seven Seas Entertainment

The revamped site includes a news section on the front page for their press releases, and tidied up navigation for finding info on their different series. Details on individual volumes still link off-site to MacMillan, however, which is a bit of a headache but at least it’s all there.

The site also has their book releases from now until the end of the year. 2014 looks to be a busy one indeed for Seven Seas.


Seven Seas Dreams Bigger With New Alice in the Country of… Trilogy

Alice in the Country of Clover: Nightmare Trilogy

Seven Seas delivered some holiday cheer when they confirmed via their Twitter account that they’d licensed a new Alice in the Country of… series:

Alice in the Country of Joker: Nightmare Trilogy – QuinRose & Yobu

As the name indicates, the series will be three volumes long and star Nightmare as Alice’s romantic inclination. The first volume is scheduled for release in August 2014. Pre-orders are already available via Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.

This is the second series Seven Seas has licensed that’s dedicated to the character, Nightmare. The first was Alice in the Country of Clover: Nightmare, which will be released a few months prior in April. In all of the Alice in the Country Of… stories, Nightmare is an enigmatic figure who comes  to Alice in her dreams. While he has offered helpful hints about her time in Wonderland, he most often speaks in vagueness to confuse her and makes clear in Alice’s absence that he knows much more than he tells her.

It was already a pleasant surprise to me that Nightmare had a one-shot, so I’m especially thrilled to see he gets a trilogy as well. I’ve been crossing my fingers that a focus on him might finally reveal a few more truths about the series hanging plot threads.

Both Nightmare titles are drawn by the same artist, Yobu. Their cover artwork for Nightmare looks great but I’ll need a bit more optimism for the eye-candy after seeing how they drew Alice on volume one’s cover. Hmm…

Alice


Review: Alice in the Country of Hearts – The Clockmaker’s Story

Alice in the Country of Hearts - The Clockmaker's Story

Author: Quinrose
Manga-ka: Mamenosuke Fujimaru
Publisher: Seven Seas
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2013

Synopsis: “Julius Monrey is the grim Clockmaker of Wonderland, responsible for controlling the world’s time from his lonely Clock Tower, not to mention fixing the stopped clocks of the dead. When the beautiful Alice Liddell comes to live with and rely upon him, will her warm personality melt through his cool, apathetic heart – and bring about romantic feelings he never knew he had?”

There’s a certain stubborn streak required to keep up with all the Alice in the Country of… books. Some are good and some are awful, but they all leave us wondering if maybe, just maybe, the next one will answer all those looming questions. Why was Alice brought here? Has Nightmare been telling the truth about the vial? How is Alice’s sister involved? Sadly, The Clockmaker’s Story doesn’t address any of these points but it does give us something that’s been sorely lacking since the beginning – a genuinely touching romance.

Read more…


Seven Seas Adds D-Frag Comedy Manga to 2014 Schedule

Seven Seas Adds D-Frag Comedy Manga to 2014 Schedule

Seven Seas continues to add to their 2014 library of titles with another new licenses announced via their Twitter account:

D-Frag! – Tomoya Haruno

D-Frag follows a young man named Kenji Kazama, who is seen by himself and his peers as the school delinquent. His school life changes when he’s forced to join a gamers’ club consisting of girls who’re considerably more out-there than he ever was.

Seven Seas describes it as “Lots of slapstick/gag comedy, a bit of slice-of-life school antics and a dash of (not your average) harem fun.” The company also recently launched an Instagram account where they posted several hints for fans to guess D-Frag! before officially announcing it.

The first volume of D-Frag! is scheduled for July 2014 and priced at $14.99/CAN, $12.99/US. Volume two is listed for September. Both these volumes are currently available for pre-order on Amazon.ca – volume one and volume two.

Seven Seas’ announcement of the license comes pretty well-timed with the premiere of the D-Frag anime, which will have its first episode air this early January.


Take me back to the top!